Mayo joint-manager Noel Connelly was pleased with the character his team showed in coming from seven points down to force a replay with Dublin.

"We're delighted with that, delighted with the character of the team. Maybe in days gone by, a seven-point deficit with 12 minutes to go may have been too much, but I thought the lads showed great determination throughout the field, and pressed on, got the penalty, which gave us a bit of momentum again," he said.

"I just thought at the end we were on top and maybe unlucky not to get another chance or two to nail it. But it didn't happen, we look at it as if it's half-time now, and we've got to prepare well again for next Saturday."

The former Mayo captain wasn't surprised by the physical intensity of the game.

"We got the same challenge in Castlebar on March 14th in the league, so we were under no illusions about the tempo that Dublin would bring to the game, and they did that," he continued.

"But I thought we worked extremely hard in our defence. We had a lot of wides, and that's another thing we need to look at and work on during the week.

"We need to make sure the preparation during the week is good and that we recover as best we can, but also looking forward at the same time to another great evening's football next Saturday evening. It will be another great battle I'm sure."

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